


Better Half of Me

by CatAnnJos



Category: Neighbours (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Hurt, Love, Regret, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26381188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatAnnJos/pseuds/CatAnnJos
Relationships: Paul Robinson/Terese Willis
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	1. 9/9/20

It had been a quiet night. The girls were out and Ned had decided to join Terese and Paul for dinner and a movie. It wasn’t often the three of them spend time together, and although Ned had offered to give them space, a night like this was exactly what the three of them needed. Not a single one of them had fond memories of what happen a year ago and none of them had the intention to celebrate the day. Having her way Terese would’ve skipped today all together. They should’ve been excited about tomorrow, looking forward to their first anniversary together. But all day, it was there in the back of her mind, a year ago could’ve been their last day together, the day everything broke. The day their worlds crumbled and their forever became their never. Paul wasn’t himself either. He was quiet. He often got like this when he had memories weighing on his mind. He was struggling today though, and if she didn’t know for sure before, it was really confirmed when he didn’t fight Ned for the last Harold’s Coconut Slice at dinner! She hated seeing him like this. Today was a constant reminder of the what ifs that no one wanted to talk about it. 

Left gathering her thoughts on her own Terese got up off the couch and looked towards the kitchen

“Goodnight Ned” she said as she headed upstairs

“Night Terese”

She walked upstairs and as she reached their bedroom door she stopped. The bed was empty, still in the same condition as she left it this morning. Lifting her head, she looked towards the balcony. There he was. Standing in the moonlight. Her husband. She could tell his mind was drifting as he leaned forward. She stood there for a while admiring the view before joining him. She walked up behind, wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight. He sighed.

“I thought you’d gone to bed” she whispered

“I came to close the curtains and ended up staying here, watching the night”

Terese let go and went to stand beside him

“So, what stars do we see tonight then”

“Well over there you’ve got the Great Bear” he said pointing up in front of him. “And over there we have Little Bear.” he said pointing to his left.

“Really?” she questioned

“Nah, don’t be silly. I’d need my old Telescope to see anything out there.” He paused for a bit “Mind you, there is one star that’s so bright she’s very hard to miss, she’s there every night, no matter what.”

“Oh yeah?” Terese said looking up towards the sky hoping to spot it before him.

He simply turned his head, looked at her and smiled. She was glistening in the moonlight. His wife. His world. His home. Looking at her, he often wondered why. Why did she love him, out of everyone or anyone, why him? God knows he never made it easy.

Terese turned her attentions to him.

“Where is she then, have you found her”

“Who?” he reacted before gathering his thoughts “Oh yeah, she’s been here all night. And in here” he said pointing to his heart “for years.”

Terese looked at him with a coy smile and took his hands.

“I love you so much” she said with a warm smile on her face

Not replying he let go, turned, leaned on the balcony’s edge and looked back out onto the street. Over the road the light went out at No32. Paul sighed.

“Do you think they have nights like tonight”

“Family movie nights?” Terese answered with confusion in her voice.

Silence filled the air as she waited for an answer.

“Nights contemplating the what ifs?”

Terese looked at him 

“Because it was me that almost ruined their dream. My actions. That day could’ve turned out much different if it wasn’t for the determination of those boys. I could’ve missed out on my boy’s wedding because I was just being an idiot, making a problem where there wasn’t one. Always making the problem.”

She placed her hand on his back and moved it up and down in a calming motion.

“Hey, where’s all this coming from?”

“They fought and won because of the love they share for one another. “He turned and looked at her “I almost lost you last year because I got scared and created a problem where there wasn’t one.”

“Yes, and just like the boys our love carried us to where we belonged. To our dream”

“Our dream, or mine?” he questioned

“Paul. I don’t get this? Is this because of today?”

“Today, Yesterday, this year. Oh Terese, this has been my dream for a long time. Sharing my life with you. Waking up beside you every morning. Being able to kiss you whenever and wherever and introducing you to people as my wife, my world, my best friend.”

“And I share that dream, you know that” she answered

He turned and held her hands tightly.

“You are a wonderful, caring, loving person. Anyone on the street would find it hard not to agree. So why settle for me? Why risk everything for someone like me.”

“Because I love you and because I chose you.”

“You knew how risky that was. Right to the end, you knew how risky it could be settling for me”

“Listen, today has bought back a lot of bad memories for all of us. And no, ending what we had like you did wasn’t the best idea you’ve ever had, but you were scared.”

Paul look down and shook his head

“Hey, the mind games they played were enough to scare anyone and I know you’ve been struggling to escape those memories today, so let me help you.” She let go of his hands and lifted his face up. “You want to know why I chose you, why I took the risk? She paused “It’s not only because I love you”

Tears filled his eyes as they looked at each other

“It’s because I believe in you. I trust you and above all I understand you. You break the rules because you believe in yourself and your actions. You meddle in others’ lives because you care. You broke my heart because it was the only way you knew how to keep me safe and you hide yours away because you’re afraid it’ll get broken. I love you because I know the real you, the man behind the suit. My husband, my world, my best friend”

Terese stepped forward, kissed him on the cheek and held him tight in her arms. He stood there for a second before returning the gesture. 

“Never think you aren’t good enough. You understand. The others don’t see us as we do, and that makes us all the more stronger.”

“I am so lucky to have you” he replied

“Luck had nothing to do with it. We’re a team that no one can compare too. We were always meant to be.”

Paul released himself from her embrace and held her hands in his. He looked at her, his eyes full of adoration towards her words.

“Endgame”

“Always.” she agreed

He turned and looked out onto the street. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They stood in silence under the stars for a while just enjoying each other’s company.

“Remember that balcony at the hotel in London, looking out over the Thames.” Terese reminisced

“How could I forget, our first night in London as a married couple.” Paul said with a smile

“That was a lovely night”

“Yes, it was, apart from that bloody dog” Paul muttered

Terese laughed as she thought back to that day

“Poor dog, he did nothing wrong.” she said slightly lifting her head to see his reaction

“It was like a scene out of Dalmatians” He said looking down at her “That never-ending barking from one street to the other!”

“Well you did make it worse darling”

“I was shutting it up”

“By shouting. Which sounded a lot like barking!”

He smiled before giving a playful nudge. Just as they finished talking, a dog barked in the distance.

“Seriously, it's like they know.” he said shaking his head

“I think you’ve found a new calling. A dog whisperer.” Terese said with a cheeky smile on her face. “Imagine if we had a dog, wouldn’t that be nice?”

He loosened her grip from his waist and stepped back.

“Nice! Terese the house is full enough without adding another body. Although he’d probably be less of hassle that those three”

“Paul!”

“Kidding, just kidding! And please don’t mention the dog thing around Roxy, you know she’s mentioned this before, knowing someone else likes the idea would be the only ok she needed to bring one home”

“Dinner time conversation sorted for tomorrow then” Terese teased

Paul shot her a sarcastic smile before he turned and headed inside. Terese followed with a gleeful smile on her face. She closed the doors behind her and shut the curtains. As they walked towards the bed Pauls phone started ringing on the side table.

“A reminder at this time of night?” Terese questioned

“Yes. I was planning on being in bed by now”

Terese shot him a confused look. He looked a bit embarrassed before sighing.

“I set an alarm for midnight. I wanted to wake up so I could spend the first minute of our anniversary with you.”

“Aww, Paul”

He took her hands as their eyes met in a loving gaze.

“Happy Anniversary Mrs. Robinson.”

“Happy Anniversary darling”

They stood for a while just looking at each other, lost in their own little world. Suddenly he let go of her hands before walking away to the other side of the bed at very eager pace.

“Now I know we said no gifts but I couldn’t resist” He said picking up a bag and placing it on the bed.

Terese’s face lit up, it felt like Christmas. She picked the bag up; it wasn’t heavy but felt big. She reached in and pulled out a rectangle shaped box. Her face dropped.

“Ah Paul you shouldn’t have.” she muttered holding a Tin Tin DVD in her hand. She opened the case to see if there was a surprise inside. And there was. There was nothing but the DVD! He was usually so good with gifts.

“I was thinking, you and me, romantic dinner and then a trip around the world with our favourite Belgium reporter.” he said excitedly 

“Your favourite Belgium reporter”

“C’mon who doesn’t love Snowy!” he said

She raised her eyebrows and looked at him wide eyed

“Yeah yeah, I know, the dog thing. But what do you say?” he said pointing to the DVD.

She looked at him, how could she say no. He was doing that puppy dog look he often gave her when he needed something or had done something wrong. This time she couldn’t figure out which one this was!

“Fine, but I’m picking the snacks”

“Done” he replied 

Terese walked around the bed and stood next to him. He turned to face her. She placed her hand on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“You know, you could’ve at least bought Endgame.” she said before kissing him on the lips. 

“I didn’t want to see you cry on our anniversary. Trust me this is the perfect movie for us” he replied before kissing her back

“Well thank you, but I remember someone else having something in their eye at the end of that movie.” she replied giving him another kiss.

He smiled and shook his head

“Shut up and come here” he said pulling her closer and kissing her again, as the kiss got deeper, he held her close and lowered her slowly onto the bed.


	2. 10/9/20

Well here we go, Terese thought to herself. The day had been very typical so far. A morning as usual playing peacemaker between Paul and Pierce. Nice lunch for two on the terrace followed by an afternoon of meetings and paperwork. They had agreed that they were going to treat today just as any other day. To them, it was. Paul had broken that rule though, with his gift, then again, the DVD was hardly romantic or special was it. This morning, they both had woken up the same as always only to head downstairs and be greeted with a surprise breakfast from the kids. When tucking in Paul had told her he didn’t understand why everyone was celebrating this one day, he understood it was special because it was the first, but he celebrated their marriage every day, why did they need to keep it all just for today. Terese sighed with a smile on her face. He really knew how to make her feel special, how to make her feel like she was the only person in the world. But again, her mind kept going back to that gift. She looked at the DVD sitting on the table in front of her, he really had missed the boat with this one. At least dinner had been nice, just the two of them and a roast that Paul liked to call his specialty. She couldn’t bear to tell him the roasts were overdone. He always managed to crisp them a little bit too much, but that’s what made it that little bit more special she thought. His own little touch on an otherwise perfect meal.

“Right, you ready darling" Paul said walking into the sunroom

“Tell me again. Why are we here on the laptop and not using the TV?”

He walked round and joined her on the couch.

“It’s nicer here. You and me, snuggled under a blanket, with your questionable choice of snacks”

She looked at him with raised eyebrows

“And your childish choice in movies”

Paul looked at her and smiled

“Don’t we make the best pair. What more could you want?”

She smiled.

“What” he asked still smiling

“Promise me you’ll never change”

“I promise. Although you might regret that promise one day” he said touching her nose with his finger and giving her a cheeky grin “Now how do we do this” he said as his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID. He answered the phone.  
“Are you ready. Yes, we are here, is everyone else there? Right ok. I’ll just set us up. I’ll just click here, and accept that. Yes, I’ve got your instructions, I’m not a total stranger to all this you know. Yeah she’s looking at me like I’ve lost the plot.” Paul said looking over his shoulder to see Terese sitting there looking confused.

“Paul, what’s going on?” she asked

“This” he answered as he clicked accept on the laptop. The screen changed. Terese looked shocked, she could hardly speak. 

“I don’t.” she muttered looking at him.

“I told you. This is the perfect movie for us tonight.” 

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked back at the screen. Looking back at her were her family and friends. Piper and Tyler. Paige, Mark and Gabe. Amber and Matilda. Leo, Amy and Jimmy. Imogen and Daniel. Nick was there with her Mum and Dad. Lucy and Mark. David and Aaron. Ned and Yashvi. Roxy and Kyle. Harlow and Hendrix. The Kennedys. Bea and Levi. Sheila and Clive. The Greyson’s. Nicolette and Jane. The Rebecchis and Mackenzie and Scott and Charlene. Steph was there too. Also Andrew, Tash, Harry, Sophie, Hilary, Des, Elle and Maddison had decided to join in the fun.

“Hi” she said, overwhelmed. Words had completely escaped her. She looked at Paul, who sat there admiring his wife. It wasn’t often he would manage to get this reaction from her. “So, no Snowy?”

“That’s all I get. I put all this together and your first response is asking about a dog in the movie you never wanted to watch. Unbelievable “

“Yeah mum, unbelievable. It like you think he is incapable of doing good” Piper teased

Paul looked at her unamused before turning his attention back to Terese.

“The Tin Tin case is a throwback to our honeymoon, the DVD inside is our journey there. I know last year wasn’t the perfect day you had planned, and you always say that all you needed there was me. And while I can’t fault that, I know you’re only telling me what I want to hear. I know you better than anyone, I know you deserved better. So, while we can’t recreate the day. You can blame Karl for that.”

“Excuse me” Karl answered

“Damn, forgot that was on.” Paul teased before pressing mute and turning their laptop to the wall. He continued.

“While we can’t re-create, we can relive.” He took her hands in his, she looked at him with only love in her eyes “I contacted the hotel for footage, set the date with our family and friends and asked Piper nicely to lend her tech services. Tonight darling, we will share our wedding day with the important people in our lives. It may not be the same, but I want everyone to enjoy a day that was one of the best of my life.”

“Aww, Paul” she leaned in and gave him a kiss. She pulled away and placed her hand on his cheek as both of them looked at each other. He reached up, took her hand and as he pulled it down towards them, both stopped to look at the wedding ring. They smiled.

“Shall we then?” he said bring the screen back around and unmuting the laptop.

“Uncle P what was that all about? Roxy questioned 

“Privacy, Roxy.”

“Hey, you call him Uncle P too?” Daniel shouted across

“Yeah. You’re Daniel, right?”

“One and only”

“Hey, can we do this later. Thank you. Piper if you could do the honours?” Paul said cutting the conversation short.

Both sat back. Paul lifted the laptop and placed it on his lap. Terese lifted her legs onto the couch, snuggled beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. This was a surprise, the kind of surprise she had come to expect from him. Romantic and heartfelt. She looked up at him, he met her gaze and smiled before they both turned back to look at the screen.

...........................................................

Paul headed out into the garden. The sun loungers had often seemed pointless to him, and after an unfortunate accident that only he was witness too, he would always avoid sitting on them. Tonight though, he was drawn to them. For some reason they were more appealing than the bench or the table. He decided to push them together knowing Terese would eventually join him, he sat down, leaned back and looked up at the sky. It had been a long night and Terese was saying her final goodbyes. It was nice seeing everybody in one place again. How special would her day have been if this was a year ago, he thought, how special would her memories be if this had been their day. She deserved everyone but all she got was his ex-wife, her sister and Elvis. He smiled to himself. Elvis was pretty special though.

“What’s this?” Terese asked walking towards him with a blanket in her hand.

“I know, turns out they make wonderful stargazing seats” he said with a smile

Terese stood by his feet.

“Well just be careful. We all know what happened last time you fancied sitting on these”

“What! How do you...?”

“Darling we live in a house full of eyes, did you think no one would see you”

“What, like you on the bucking bull.” he answered back. She looked at him with her mouth open “Oh yeah. It seems walls in this house have a habit of talking”

“Oh by the way, Piper says thank you” Terese said quickly changing the subject

“For what?”

“For being everything she thought you weren’t”

He looked at her confused.

“And everything I knew you were.”

She made her way around to the lounger next to him.

“Oh, I don’t know Terese. Tonight was supposed to be special, but it’s just another reminder of how I let you down”

“Hey” she said laying down on the lounger him. “Tonight, was special, it was everything I could’ve wished for”

“But if I hadn’t bought that chaos into your life then this could’ve been your day last year. Instead you had to settle for Elvis and my ex-wife and her sister celebrating our day”

“And like I’ve told you before, all I wanted was you, just you. We could’ve been out in the wilderness for all I cared, with you by my side my day was perfect.”

“You keep saying that but...”

She reached over and placed her hand next to him.

“Listen, without last year we wouldn’t have tonight.” She paused for a bit “Last year was perfect, tonight was special”

He moved his hand and interlocked his fingers in hers. He gently moved his thumb up and down hers in a calming motion.

“And without tonight I wouldn’t have known about your little ring rescue moment”

“I know. I asked for any footage they had of us on that day and they really did go all out looking didn’t they, talk about embarrassing.“ He said looking at her with a glint in his eyes “But worth every second”

Terese smiled at him. He smiled back 

“Just don’t ask me to do it again”

“Oh, I don’t know, my rings might just fall into the Lassiters pond tomorrow.”

“Well then they are staying there, casual trousers are one thing but there is no way I am sacrificing my suit”

“Charming”

“It’s just common-sense darling.” he said with a playful smile, before turning to look at the sky. Terese sat there watching him for a bit before shuffling across to snuggle next to him. He wrapped his arm around her as she pulled the blanket over them. She placed her arm on his chest and rested her head on his shoulder. 

“Life’s funny isn’t it?” he said after a while. “This, us two, it used to be my dream. And, you know, at times it felt like that was all it was going to be. But I never stop fighting. Never gave up on us. You see, no one ever came close to stealing my heart like you did. I was worried yesterday about the events of last year, but life has never been straightforward for us, and our journey is what makes our relationship all the more precious. Oh Terese, you will always be that one light in all the darkness that’s been, and ever will be. You are my best friend. My soul mate.”

Paul looked down at her. He gently moved the hair from her face. Her eyes were closed and she was resting soundly in his arms. He smiled as he watched her sleep. He leant forward and kissed her on the head.

“My dream come true” he whispered before resting his head on hers as he closed his eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Title is thanks to Tom Walkers song 'Better Half of Me'. The lyrics fit Paul and Terese's relationship perfectly and so I thought it would be the perfect title for this Anniversary Fic.
> 
> Tin Tin reference it thanks to ALittleWren 's reference of their trip to Belgium in 'Worthy of Love Anyway' and Stefan and Rebekah's trip to Brussels during their stay in London.


End file.
